Michigan Republicans Following Wisconsin’s Lead In Curbing Democrats’ Power

(Reuters) – A day after Wisconsin Republicans approved a package of bills intended to restrict the powers of incoming Democratic leaders, Republican lawmakers in Michigan were advancing a similar effort despite an outcry from Democrats.

The Michigan state Senate was expected on Thursday to vote on legislation to strip the power to oversee campaign finance from the newly elected Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson. The state House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow lawmakers to sidestep the attorney general in litigation involving the state.

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Meanwhile, North Carolina’s Republican-led state Senate approved a new strict voter identification law on Thursday, after the state Assembly did the same on Wednesday. Republicans have rushed to pass that bill before January, when they will lose the legislative supermajority allowing them to overturn Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s veto.

In each case, Democrats have cried foul, arguing that the last-minute maneuvering ignores the will of the voters. Republicans in both Michigan and Wisconsin will see eight years of total control of state government end in January, when Democrats take over the governor’s mansions and other top executive posts.

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“This power grab is a deliberate attempt by legislative Republicans to silence the voices of the 4.3 million Michiganders that made their choice clear in the last election,” Michigan Representative Christine Greig, who will become the Democratic minority leader in the House in January, said in a statement.